Despite a gloomy economy, the toy and game industry is doing just fine, said exhibitors at the sixth annual Chicago Toy and Game Fair Nov. 22 and 23 at Navy Pier. Leaders from top toy and game companies contend that when times are tough, Americans are more inclined to swap pricey movie outings, concerts and sporting events for family game night.

Games have traditionally been “recession proof,” said Roger Gehrke, a board-game industry expert and president of Swedish development and marketing firm Sybarit AB.

Al Waller, president of Out of the Box Publishing Inc., declared that games are a good value. “The economy, when it goes into a slowdown or recession, is really good for the industry,” he said. “And the reason for that is because families have limited resources.”

“People are actually buying more [games] because of the down economy,” said Waller, whose company recently sold its best-selling Apples to Apples game to Mattel Inc.

At the show, nicknamed ChiTAG and billed as the nation’s only public toy and game expo, the young—and the young at heart—tested new games, met inventors and shopped for holiday gifts.

While the cards may be stacked against retailers this holiday season, a strained economy actually encourages invention and development, said Gehrke.

“When people are having a tough time at work or are getting laid off, they have a lot of free time to create,” he said.

Graeme Thompson, head of HL Games Ltd., a Chicago board game publisher, said that the educational, hobby and bookstore sectors he sells to are doing well, while other specialty retailers are hurting.

“Normally people who would restock when they get down to six or a dozen copies of a game are waiting until they get down to two or three copies to restock,” he said.

For those wishing to try their hand at invention, the toy folks warn of stiff competition in the industry.

“There’s an enormous amount of creativity, which means there’s an enormous amount of games on the market,” Gehrke said. “And at the same time, it’s fairly inexpensive to bring a game out into the market today with digital technology.”

Mike Hirtle, head of global inventor relations and product acquisition for giant Hasbro Inc., said his company looks at about 3,200 toy and game ideas every year.

“My team and I reject about two-thirds of those right when we see them,” he said. The rest—about 800 prototypes—are brought into the Hasbro office for another round of culling.

“We reject stuff left and right,” Hirtle said. “At the end of the day, we might put 32 products into our line every year.” This means that only one in every 100 ideas makes it into Hasbro’s product line annually.

“And we don’t succeed with everything we put out there,” Hirtle added. “Out of 32, maybe 10 will be successful, meaning they last for a couple, maybe three years.”

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the toy and game industry is worth over $10 billion when counting Hasbro and Mattel alone.

“Inventors are working really, really hard because the chance to succeed in this business is really, really small,” Hirtle said.

Still, fierce competition didn’t scare away the budding game developers who participated in ChiTAG’s Young Inventor Challenge on Sunday. Sponsored by Lund and Company Invention LLC, the competition invited students ages 18 and younger to submit original toy and game designs, which were judged by expo attendees.

Joe Basile, the mastermind behind Kings of Kingdoms, understands that being successful in the industry requires thinking outside of the box.

Basile’s design won first place in the senior division of the challenge. He said he tries to get out of the habit of borrowing ideas from his favorite games, like Settlers of Catan.

“I wanted to do something different, something unique,” he said of his two-deck strategy card game, which, unlike many strategic games, involves a lot of talking between players.

This interaction is what excites Al Waller about the industry. “It’s engaging. It’s a distraction, but at the same time it grows brain cells,” he said.

“People are worried,” he continued. “Their 401(k)s have been cut in half. They’re wondering if they can retire, if they have enough money for food. As more and more people come to understand the benefits of games, it kind of counteracts all the fear in our society right now.”